Saturday, August 23, 2014

Book Review - "Jenny" by Sigrid Undset

This book was recommended to me by some Goodreads friends and I've given it 4 out of 5 stars. Sigrid Undset was a Norwegian novelist who won the 1928 Nobel Prize for Literature and was best known for her trilogy "Kristin Lavransdatter" which is set in Scandinavia in the Middle Ages.

Here's my review of "Jenny":-

This
is a heartbreaking story set in the distant past about a young Norwegian woman
artist who is torn between her desire for self-development and her longing for
true love. However, the values and principles behind the actions of the
protagonist could well reflect the moral dilemma of many decent women of today with
an educated mind. Is love or work more important?

Born
to an unwholesome family where fatherly love is lacking, Jenny has always had
to fend for herself while growing up. Her greatest attributes – independence, sense
of responsibility, moral fortitude, diligence, compassion for the weak – could be
her invincible armor against any adversity in life.

Just
as she is set to go out and conquer the world, armed with artistic talent and
an optimistic outlook on life, she trips up by making one small mistake –
letting herself grow weak and be pampered by a short moment of tender love that
she’s been long thirsting for – and loses all control over her own fate.

During
her fateful love affair and in the aftermath, her independence, sense of
responsibility and moral principles drown her in an emotional ebb of guilt,
remorse and shame and abandon her to carrying all blame on her shoulders. Her disinclination
to hurt others sends her into a downward spiral, from which she never recovers.
Her greatest attributes become her greatest curse. Her life is ironically
ruined by her longing for true love.

Jenny
said this to Gunnar, which sums up her life: “One day, I made a slight change in course. It seemed to me so difficult
and harsh, living the life I thought was the most worthy – it was lonely, you
know. So I veered away for a moment, wanting to be young and to play a little.
And then I was caught in an undertow that carried me off, and I ended up in
circumstances that I never for an instant imagined it would be possible for me
to be anywhere near.”

The
novel makes one wonder: can the female soul ever overcome the longing for true love?
Are women in truth just like what Gunnar describes: “so strong and erect in her striving, and yet so frail and brittle.”?